Winston Churchill La Corona Cigar

- Item No.

Key Features

Item Details

Length:
6 1/2 Inches

Period:
20th Century

Origin:
England/Ireland

One of the world's most famous cigar smokers, Winston Churchill, gave this La Corona cubano cigar to Oscar C. Preuss, the famed manager of Parlophone Records, in 1949. Housed in a La Espana box, this cigar has a Colorado claro wrapper with a special label bearing Churchill's name. Churchill's penchant for fine cigars is the stuff of legend. To find one once owned by this great man in such good condition is truly remarkable.

Provenance: Winston S. Churchill; O.C. Preuss

Dated April 1949

6 1/2" length

The image of Sir Winston Churchill with a cigar firmly grasped between his fingers or clamped between his lips is one of the most iconic of the 20th century. A cigar-smoker since age 21, Churchill smoked between six and ten cigars a day and maintained a supply of several thousand in a room near his study in Chartwell, his home in Kent. He was especially fond of large maduro cigars, and was known to save the ends and give them to his gardener - the tobacco to be smoked in his pipe. Legend also has it that the most famous photograph of Sir Winston, which captures him leaning against a desk and scowling in defiance, was captured because the photographer, Yousuf Karsh, took his cigar away for the sitting.

Churchill's cigar tastes were limited to a small number of favored suppliers, especially Romeo y Julieta cigars and (the no longer available) La Aroma de Cuba. Pepin Fernandez Rodriguez, who bought the Romeo y Julieta cigar brand in 1903, is credited with introducing the "Churchill cigar," which is still a favorite today.